The love of Jesus Christ makes those who love Him totally indifferent, so that everything is the same to them, both the sweet and the bitter: they want nothing that pleases themselves, and everything that pleases God.
Newsroom (08/11/2021 08:30,Gaudium Press ) “It is said that purity of intention is the heavenly alchemy by which iron becomes gold; that is, the most trivial actions such as working, eating, enjoying oneself, and resting, done for God, become the gold of holy love. This is why St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi entirely believed that those who do everything with pure intention go straight to Paradise, without having to enter Purgatory.
It is narrated in the Spiritual Hermitage[1] that a solitary Saint, before performing any action, used to stop for a while and raise his eyes to Heaven. Asked why he did this, he replied: ‘I seek to strike the blow.” What he meant was that, just as the archer aims at the target to hit the shot before shooting the arrow, so this man, before putting his hand to any action, aimed at God, so that the work might be pleasing to Him.
“So should we also do; before proceeding with a work begun, it is well for us to renew from time to time our intention to please God. Those who in their labours look to nothing else but the Divine will enjoy that holy freedom of mind which the children of God have; which causes them to embrace whatever pleases Jesus Christ, notwithstanding any repugnance of self-love or human respect.
“The love of Jesus Christ makes those who love Him totally indifferent, so that everything is equal for them, both the sweet and the bitter: they want nothing that pleases themselves, and everything that pleases God. With the same peace they are engaged in great things and small things, in pleasant and unpleasant things: it is enough for them that they please God“.
Reference: SANTO AFONSO MARIA DE LIGÓRIO. ‘Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ‘. Translation: Luís Augusto Rodrigues Domingues. São Paulo: Cultor of Books, 2021, p. 71.
[1] Work also entitled ‘Of the Knowledge and Love of the Son of God‘, by Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure.
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
